# The GIVE Act: What Veterans Need to Know About College Information

If you're a veteran using your GI Bill benefits to pay for college, this bill makes sure you get better information before you choose a school. Right now, the Department of Veterans Affairs provides veterans with basic details about colleges and universities, but this bill adds three important new pieces of information that schools must disclose: whether they're affiliated with a religion and which one, whether they're designated as a minority-serving institution, and whether they only admit one gender.

The practical effect is that veterans will have a clearer picture of what each school is really like before they commit their education benefits. If you're looking for a school with a particular religious affiliation, or you specifically want to attend a historically Black college, a Hispanic-serving institution, or a tribal college, you'll be able to find that information easily. The bill also requires the VA to make this information searchable online, so you won't have to dig through pages of text to compare schools. This matters because your GI Bill benefits are valuable—they're meant to help you succeed—and having complete information helps you pick the school that's the best fit for you.

The changes won't happen immediately. Schools will have two years from when the bill becomes law to start providing this new information to the VA. This gives educational institutions time to gather and organize the data. Once it's in place, any veteran using education benefits will be able to search through schools based on these characteristics, making it easier to find institutions that match what you're looking for in your educational experience.

GIVE Act

Torres, Norma J.

G.I. and Veterans Education Empowerment Act or the GIVE Act This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide veterans and members of the Armed Forces with information about whether (1) a postsecondary education institution is listed on the College Navigator website as being affiliated with a certain religion, (2) an institution is minority serving, and (3) an institution is gender specific.